Thank You

Thank you again to my peers who helped inspire me, motivate me, support me and most importantly challenge me. I am getting closer to accomplishing my goal, but I could not have done it without the help of my classmates and Dr. Myers! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

I would also like to share a quote on education that I found inspirational:

"The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done."            Jean Piaget 

With the help of Walden University, my classmates and I can educate young children who will grow up to accomplish new things.

Hope to see you in my next class!!!

Assessing Young Children

I am the first to admit that I am a horrible test taker. I experience test anxiety, always second guess my answer and overall do poorly on tests. It's unfair to judge a child's educational growth by one assessment. What if the child is having an "off" day the day of that very important assessment?? What if the child is experiencing stress or even abuse in the home? Doesn't that affect the scores on their assessments?? I personally believe that a child's educational success should not be judged by one assessment. Sure, I do poorly on tests but was very successful with writing. Currently, Georgia uses an assessment to determine if a child should be retained. I hope my daughter doesn't suffer my test anxiety/issues. I am positive that if an assessment was the determinant of my educational fate in elementary school, I would have been retained numerous times. I personally believe the whole child should be assessed.

Assessing young children in Spain
My sister (Meredith) is currently living and teaching English in Spain. I thought who better to ask about assessing young children in a different country than my sister! We talked briefly on the phone and she had this to say:

Teaching young children in Spain
Meredith (my sister) is on the back row

Children in Spain are grouped in Cycle's. Cycle 1 consists of 1st and 2nd Grade, Cycle 2 consists of 3rd and 4th Grade and Cycle 3 consists of 5th and 6th Grade. The child remains with the same teacher during the Cycle (at the end of 2nd grade the child moves to a new cycle and a new teacher). At the end of each cycle the young child is given an English exam. This exam does not determine whether or not the child moves to the next cycle. In fact the school has to pay to receive results. The child is assessed as a whole--their educational advancement is not determined by one test.

My sister and I are both similar--we agree with this method. She also did not do well on tests but look where she is now. She is living her dream in a country she adores! Imagine if her educational fate was determined by her test taking skills.